Swampscott police chief explains new alarm bylaw

SWAMPSCOTT – Police Chief Ronald Madigan said the new bylaw regulating alarms goes into effect July 1 but residents and businesses would have plenty of time to register their alarm systems.”We’ve already received a call from someone asking how to register,” he said. “She said she wanted to make sure she doesn’t get a fine.”Madigan said the bylaw, passed at Town Meeting earlier this month, requires all alarms be registered in January.”It’s going into effect in July,” he said. “We’ve got to put a system in place for people to register so obviously there will be a grace period.”The new bylaw requires all alarms in town to be registered, properly installed and maintained to minimize false alarms. The regulations require alarms to have equipment that prevents false alarms in a power failure.Madigan pointed out the bylaw was necessary due to the volume of false alarms. He said police responded to 1,009 alarms between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.”At least 99 percent of the alarms we respond to are not actual alarms,” he said. “The goal is to encourage people to make repairs to reduce the number of false alarms so we can make better use of police resources.”The police plan to designate an officer to administer the program, responsible for reviewing alarm activations, reporting problem alarms, service fee billing and to act as a community resource.Homeowners would not be fined for the first two false alarms but a $60 service fee would apply to residential alarms for the third and subsequent false alarms within a calendar year.The first two false alarms on non-residential properties in a calendar year would not be charged a fee, but subsequent violations would result in an $80 fee per occurrence. A malicious false alarm would carry a fine of $150 per activation.The alarm service fees would not be subject to a formal appeal process but Madigan said the police chief, fire chief or other designee would accept written documentation outlining mitigating circumstances for the false alarm and measures being taken by the user to prevent future false alarms, adding that the police and fire chief could waive the fee if circumstances warranted it.